Abstract

In any collaborative change-making process, team members hold individual, and often differing, ideas about how change happens. These ideas may address whether to work top-down or bottom-up, what leverage points are to be targeted, or who should be involved in the work, in what capacity, and when. If these differences in perspectives are not examined and discussed, they can lead to conflicting actions, lessen positive impact, and may even do harm. Mapping “Theories of Change” is an approach that has been used to clarify strategies for initiating change across many sectors. Yet, when it comes to complex design engagements, we propose that a different approach is needed. Rather than utilizing a formal modeling process, we believe that teams can find alignment and build more productive working relationships through conversations that engage and clarify beliefs about transformation. In this paper, we propose that designers should acknowledge, reflect, and discuss change theories within collaborative teams. We offer a framework to support dialogue about change that reflects three common phases of designing: Situate & Relate, Understand & Reframe, Intervene & Observe.

Keywords

theory of change, design for transitions, design methods, community design

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Conference Track

Research Paper

Share

COinS
 
Jun 25th, 9:00 AM

Articulating theories of change towards more just and transformative design practices

In any collaborative change-making process, team members hold individual, and often differing, ideas about how change happens. These ideas may address whether to work top-down or bottom-up, what leverage points are to be targeted, or who should be involved in the work, in what capacity, and when. If these differences in perspectives are not examined and discussed, they can lead to conflicting actions, lessen positive impact, and may even do harm. Mapping “Theories of Change” is an approach that has been used to clarify strategies for initiating change across many sectors. Yet, when it comes to complex design engagements, we propose that a different approach is needed. Rather than utilizing a formal modeling process, we believe that teams can find alignment and build more productive working relationships through conversations that engage and clarify beliefs about transformation. In this paper, we propose that designers should acknowledge, reflect, and discuss change theories within collaborative teams. We offer a framework to support dialogue about change that reflects three common phases of designing: Situate & Relate, Understand & Reframe, Intervene & Observe.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.